From soap to South Pacific, Lisa's smooth sailing

Natalie Bochenski

“There's one, but I'm not going to mention it in case,” she laughs, worried about jinxing herself.

The 41-year-old has performed in The Sound of Music, Cabaret, Into the Woods and Guys and Dolls, and is now happily playing American WWII nurse Nellie Forbush in a revival of South Pacific.

Co-star Teddy Tahu Rhodes is more open.

“I would love to play Javert in Les Mis,” says the New Zealand-born baritone.

“It's nice to have a dream that you'd like to do one day, you never know. I never thought I'd be doing South Pacific.”

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But for the past year, the pair has played love interests Nellie and French plantation owner Emile de Becque in the popular Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, with sell-out seasons in Melbourne and Sydney.

Tickets are now on sale for its limited Brisbane run, from December 27 to January 20.

Based on James A. Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, and originally performed in 1949, South Pacific sets Nellie and Emile's romance against the backdrop of World War II, with racism as their great divide as Nellie struggles to accept Emile's children, whose mother is Polynesian.

“He went back and did a lot of research and spoke to Mary Rodgers [daughter of South Pacific composer Richard Rodgers]... He returned to the original notes and put quite a lot of the racist element back into it,” she says.

McCune says it's fun to explore often shocking themes and language on stage.

“People have to look at this seemingly perfect girl, in a perfect world, you know, she's just fallen in love with the perfect man of her dreams, and yet there's an underlying racism about her, and she's shocking to people, which I think is great as it certainly gets people talking ... She's so flawed, and yet she has to overcome that.”

McCune has nothing but praise for the entire cast, which also includes Daniel Koek as Lieutenant Cable and Christine Anu as Bloody Mary.

“It's great working with people that are really relaxed about their craft, because it actually makes me more relaxed - if I hang out with very highly strung people it tends to rub off and I get a bit highly strung,” she says.

Songs such as Some Enchanted Evening, Bali Ha'i, I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair and There is Nothing like a Dame are Broadway standards. For McCune, it's meant a rigorous routine, as she's on stage for the majority of the show.

“I'm fitter than I was when I started, for sure.”

Tahu Rhodes' role is comparatively smaller, and he says crosswords are his favourite backstage pastime.

“But I enjoy [the musical], I love it, I always find it entertaining, so I tend to sit side of stage and watch a lot of it.”

The 46-year-old says dropping one of the younger actors who plays Emile's daughter has been his most embarrassing moment on stage so far.

“It was accidental, the little kids run on stage, and I'm supposed to catch them, and I just lost my balance,” he says.

“It looked very uncouth on stage.”

“I just think it's embarrassing that a nine-year-old girl wiped out Teddy Tahu Rhodes, at six foot four,” laughs McCune.

“Well, I would like to say I sacrificed my own safety for hers, I got her out of the way as I headed to the floor,” he replies.

The day after Tahu Rhodes finishes South Pacific in January, he'll be on a plane to New York City, where he'll perform in Carmen at the Met, before returning for an encore season of South Pacific in Sydney.

McCune will no doubt continue to appear on the small screen as well as the stage, even though Sea Patrol has wrapped up.

Unlike Melissa George, who last month made headlines for expressing frustration at being pigeonholed as Angel from Home and Away, McCune doesn't mind being remembered as Maggie Doyle from Blue Heelers.

She says it was a gift of a role that exposed her to great actors and directors for six years.

“You kind of hope that later on, post that one role, that you've made a mark in other ways... I can understand that was probably her [Melissa's] gripe... she just wants to be seen differently.

“But it's OK to remember what you did, I don't have a problem with it.”

McCune says she has in fact begun watching the police drama from the start with her children, Archer, Oliver and Remy.

“I can see why people liked it. It's really easy, it's lovely, simple, and the storytelling is really good.